BBC iPlayer Radio app to close down this month

The BBC has announced that it will be closing down its iPlayer Radio app later this month, to shift listeners to its BBC Sounds app.

BBC Sounds launched last year as a platform carrying all BBC audio content including live radio, pre-recorded audio and podcasts.

Explaining the reason behind its move, James Purnell, Director, Radio & Education said, “Those coming to BBC radio via the iPlayer Radio app have started to see messages encouraging them to move to BBC Sounds, and from Monday 16th September we’ll begin the closure of the old app. This will take a couple of weeks and allow listeners to move over to Sounds…iPlayer Radio has given us a great foundation for Sounds. But it had limited options for on-demand listening, and we needed a new digital home for all of our stations, programmes and music mixes to ensure we keep serving everyone. That’s what Sounds aims to do – serve both loyal BBC radio listeners as well as people who in the past haven’t spent much time, if any, with us.”